There are some days that were just made for Radio and today was one of them. I started with the hike to my local Starbucks where I had my morning Coffee along with filling my Thermos then I continued over to Weston Park.
View Larger Map
Talk about good timing as Martin and myself arrived at the same time but from seperate directions.
I set up at the Picnic Table that Roy VA3CKD had set up at for the Spar Winter Field Day a few weeks earlier and Martin put his KX1 on a Park bench not too far away…
Above picture courtesy VE3MPG
… and as you can tell from todays picture the snow is really starting to melt in the park. What a difference a few weeks makes…
We arrived at the park close to 0930 and was able to get my antenna up and transmitting in time to catch the OVMRC 40m Pothole Net on 7.095 at 10 am…
Excuse the shadow… I still have to learn how to properly use the darn camera…
As you can tell from the pictures the rig of the day was my FT 817 along with the LDG Auto tuner and I decided to leave the W3EDP at home today and go with my new (to me at least) Hamantenna CN32Horizontal Antenna. This antenna is a 2m to 40m rotatable dipole that i had mounted on a combination of a 6 foot painters pole and a 4 foot length of PVC Pipe so it was roughly 10 feet above the ground. I secured the masting to the Picnic Table using a couple of Bungee Cords and it did not move in the very light wind we had today…
As mentioned previously I was able to check in to the Pothole Net with the local participants being Ed VE3GX, Martin VA3SIE, Ernie VE3EJJ and myself VA3QV. This regular Saturday get together is a fairly informal group given the poor conditions on 40m recently but we are expecting bigger and better things as the 40m band improves on a daily basis…
Right after the Pothole net closed at 1015 hrs I managed to check into the end of the Communications Ontario Net at 1020 hrs with Shawn VE3PSV from Cambridge Ontario as the Net Control Station.
View Larger Map
As you can see from the above map its a distance of just under 500kms or 300 miles between us and this contact was made with 5w at my end …
Proving that the 40m band was working I decided to spin the dial then do some fine tuning. Finding some good signals on the 15m band I lowered the antenna to better set the coils for 15m then raise it up again. This proved to be just what the Doctor ordered as I was able to contact 6Y9V in Jamica being Operated by Chad WD9DZV. As you can see from the picture (below) from his QRZ.com site that his station was doing most of (if not all) the work but I did get a signal out there for him to hear on 21.277.
and according to the QRZ information its a distance of just over 3000 kms from Ottawa to Jamica or just under 1900 miles so once again with 5 watts and an antenna at 10 feet above ground its not too bad… He was working in the ARRL DX Contest and I think I even messed up the exchange but I did get him in my log.
I heard some really strong stations on 15 and 20m but found it really hard to break a Kilowatt pileup when I was QRP so I switched over to 17m. Not really the best results there as a lot of stations who were not contesting were hiding there making the best of the band conditions which for the most part were not too bad…
Martin and myself were visited by several amateurs including Ed VE3GX along with Doreen VE3CGO (waiting in the car for Ed) and Harold VA3UNK and Patrick VA3CMD. Between swapping lies and bragging (I mean exchanging technical information) the day just flew by…
Around 1400 in the afternoon I decided that I could only have so much fun for one day and I had better head back home to look after some family stuff but it was a great day and 5 hours of fresh air along with RF makes for a fantastic time.
Thanks to those I worked and to those who visited a big thanks…
Martin also took some pictures and a Video (or two) and I will provide the links to his youtube site once they are posted… They also should be on his blog in the near future.
73bob
March 7, 2010 at 12:56 pm |
I worked 6Y9P on 80, 40, 20 & 15m. I’m in NJ so it’s only about 1600 and I’m running 100w & G5RV but he has a good signal. Not sure if he’s working 10m but I haven’t heard anyone on 10m this weekend in the contest.
It is typically easier for us low power stations (100w vs KW) and I’m sure your 5w station to get folks on Sunday. Maybe you’ll have better luck once the high power stations/pileups work the stations on Saturday leaving Sunday with them calling CQ and no pileups.
Good luck!
K2DSL – David
March 7, 2010 at 1:01 pm |
Oops – that was supposed to be 6Y9V in the prev post.
March 7, 2010 at 3:54 pm |
Ham radio is a lot of fun albeit winter or summer! Likewise, our hobby is a great fit for the outdoors and people really are interested. They are amazed when hearing distant voices or curious as to the sound of Morse code.
We’re working on a few projects here in Shell Beach, specifically, organizing ourselves into a club. Our mission like your recent outdoor excursion is operate, operate, and operate.
Thanks for an excellent read this morning!
73
KA3DRR
March 7, 2010 at 5:30 pm |
[...] wasn’t too long before Bob VA3QV appeared on the VE3MPC repeater, Bob was on his way to Starbucks to fill up his thermos flask. It [...]
March 8, 2010 at 6:31 am |
Bob, I just had to write to say how much I enjoy reading your blogs. It’s 1:30 am and I typically catch up with you around this time. Please keep up the great, entertaining and inspirational work.
Jamie Cashin VA3JME
March 8, 2010 at 6:42 am |
Thanks for the kind words Jamie… Hows the 857 working out??? and you never told me what you were using for a wire antenna at home…Did you settle on a long wire or a W3EDP?
73bob